Ezra A. (Bud) Brown: Comparison
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  • combinatorics
  • cryptography
  • reading

1. Introduction

Ezra A. Brown (born January 22, 1944 in Reading, PA) is an American mathematician active in combinatorics, algebraic number theory, elliptic curves, graph theory, expository mathematics and cryptography. He spent most of his career at Virginia Tech where he is now Alumni Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Mathematics.[1]

2. Education and Career

Brown earned a B.A. at Rice University in 1965.[2] He then studied mathematics at Louisiana State University (LSU), getting an M.S. in 1967 and a Ph.D. in 1969 with the dissertation "Representations of Discriminantal Divisors by Binary Quadratic Forms" under Gordon Pall.[3] He joined Virginia Tech in 1969 becoming Assistant Professor (1969-73), Associate Professor (1973-81), Professor (1981-2005), and Alumni Distinguished Professor of Mathematicsand Distinguished Professor of Mathematics (2005-2017). He retired from Virginia Tech in 2017.[1][4][5]

Brown became interested in elliptic curves while at LSU and this has remained one of his principal areas of research along with quadratic forms and algebraic number theory in general.

In 2020 Brown together with Richard K. Guy published The Unity of Combinatorics, which endeavors to consolidate that field of mathematics.[6]

3. Personal Life

While at Rice he met his future wife Jo. They have been married now for over 53 years and have two children, Benjamin and Daniel. Brown remained at Virginia Tech until his retirement in 2017.

Brown has a lifelong interest in music. At the age of 16 he taught himself to play the piano (by ear), and in college he acted in several musicals and joined an a cappella chorus. In 1989, he joined the Blacksburg Master Chorale and the chorus of Opera Roanoke. Starting in 2011 he took his love of music and math to MathFest where he an his fellow mathematicians composed new words to old show tunes and even took part in a Gilbert-and-Sullivan Singalong at MathFest 2016 with his "Biscuits of Number Theory" co-editor Art Benjamin.[7]

Brown and his mathematical grandfather, L. E. Dickson, have the same birthday.[8]

4. Selected Publications

4.1. Papers

  • 2018 "Five Families Around a Well: A New Look at an Old Problem" (with Matthew Crawford)[9]
  • 2012 "Why Ellipses Are Not Elliptic Curves" (with Adrian Rice)[10]
  • 2009 "Kirkman's Schoolgirls Wearing Hats and Walking Through Fields of Numbers" (with Keith Mellinger)[11]
  • 2005 “Phoebe Floats!”Phoebe Floats![12]
  • 2004 "The Fabulous (11, 5, 2) Biplane"[13]
  • 2002 "The Many Names of (7,3,1)"[14]
  • 2000 “Three Fermat Trails to Elliptic Curves”[15]
  • 1999 “Square Roots from 1; 24, 51, 10 to Dan Shanks”[16]

4.2. Books

  • 2020 (with Richard K. Guy) The Unity of Combinatorics, American Mathematical Society, ISBN:1470452790[17]
  • 2009 (co-edited with Arthur T. Benjamin) Biscuits of Number Theory, MAA Publications, ISBN:978-0-88385-340-5[7]
  • 1990 (translation from German) Regiomontanus: His Life and Work[18]

5. Awards

  • 2014 MAA Sister Helen Christensen Service Award[19]
  • 2013 MAA Allendoerfer Award (with Adrian Rice) for "Why Ellipses Are Not Elliptic Curves"[20]
  • 2010 MAA Allendoerfer Award (with Keith Mellinger) for "Kirkman's Schoolgirls Wearing Hats and Walking Through Fields of Numbers"[20]
  • 2003 MAA Allendoerfer Award for "The Many Names of (7,3,1)"[20]
  • 2001 MAA Pólya Award for “Three Fermat Trails to Elliptic Curves”[21]
  • 2000 MAA Pólya Award for “Square Roots from 1; 24, 51, 10 to Dan Shanks”[21]
  • 2006 MAA Pólya Award for “Phoebe Floats!”[21]
  • 1999 MAA John M. Smith Award for Distinguished College or University Teaching[22]
  • 1997 Virginia Tech Edward S. Diggs Teaching Scholar Award[1]
  • Omicron Delta Kappa G. Burke Johnston Award[1]

References

  1. Board of Visitors honors Ezra A. ‘Bud’ Brown of mathematics with emeritus status Virginia Tech https://vtnews.vt.edu/articles/2017/09/Science-ezrabrown_emeritus.html
  2. Alumni In The News: Ezra “Bud” Brown Rice Magazine https://alumni.rice.edu/stories/ezra-bud-brown-65-named-alumni-distinguished-professor-for-second-time
  3. Representations of discriminantal divisors by binary quadratic forms Journal of Number Theory, Volume 3, Issue 2, May 1971, pp. 213-225 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0022314X71900394
  4. Ezra A. Brown Curriculum Vitae https://www.math.vt.edu/content/dam/math_vt_edu/cv-folder/brown-ezra.pdf
  5. Ezra “Bud” Brown: Passing the Torch of Mentorship VTstories, April 24, 2019 http://vtstories.org/2019/04/23/ezra-bud-brown-passing-the-torch-of-mentorship/
  6. American Mathematical Society: MAA Press https://bookstore.ams.org/car-36/#:~:text=The%20Unity%20of%20Combinatorics%20succeeds,beautifully%20patterned%20tapestry%20of%20ideas.
  7. Biscuits of Number Theory https://www.maa.org/press/books/biscuits-of-number-theory#:~:text=In%20Biscuits%20of%20Number%20Theory,first%20course%20in%20number%20theory.&text=If%20the%20end%20of%20an,in%20and%20do%20some%20research.
  8. Three Fermat Trails to Elliptic Curves, Published 2000 https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Three-Fermat-Trails-to-Elliptic-Curves-Brown/da27900e306d4dd0ddbda9c495ae34f45aeed370
  9. Five Families Around a Well: A New Look at an Old Problem The College Mathematics Journal, Volume 49, 2018 - Issue 3 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07468342.2018.1447203
  10. "Why Ellipses Are Not Elliptic Curves" Mathematics Magazine, Vol. 85, no. 3, June 2012, pp. 163-176 https://www.maa.org/programs/maa-awards/writing-awards/carl-b-allendoerfer-awards/why-ellipses-are-not-elliptic-curves
  11. "Kirkman's Schoolgirls Wearing Hats and Walking Through Fields of Numbers" Mathematics Magazine, Vol. 82, no. 1, February 2009, pp. 3-15 https://www.maa.org/programs/maa-awards/writing-awards/kirkmans-schoolgirls-wearing-hats-and-walking-through-fields-of-numbers
  12. Phoebe Floats! The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 36, (2005), pp. 114-122. https://www.maa.org/programs/maa-awards/writing-awards/phoebe-floats
  13. The Fabulous (11, 5, 2) Biplane Mathematics Magazine, Vol. 77, No. 2, Permutations (Apr., 2004), pp. 87-100 https://www.jstor.org/stable/3219097?seq=1
  14. "The Many Names of (7,3,1)" Mathematics Magazine, Vol. 75 (2002), pp. 83-94 https://www.maa.org/meetings/calendar-events/the-many-names-of-731-and-the-unity-of-discrete-mathematics
  15. Three Fermat Trails to Elliptic Curves The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 31 (2000), pp. 162-172. https://www.maa.org/programs/maa-awards/writing-awards/three-fermat-trails-to-elliptic-curves
  16. Square Roots from 1; 24, 51, 10 to Dan Shanks The College Math Journal Vol. 30 (1999), 82-95. https://www.maa.org/programs/maa-awards/writing-awards/square-roots-from-1-24-51-10-to-dan-shanks
  17. The Unity of Combinatorics by Ezra Brown and Richard K. Guy https://www.bookdepository.com/Unity-Combinatorics-Ezra-Brown/9781470452797
  18. Regiomontanus: His Life and Work, a translation of Ernst Zinner's Leben und Werken des Johann Muller von Koenigsberg, genannt Regiomontanus, North-Holland, Amsterdam-New York, 1990 https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/6249658
  19. Sister Helen Christensen Service Award The Mathematical Association of America http://sections.maa.org/mddcva/christensen_award.php
  20. Carl B. Allendoerfer Awards Mathematical Association of America https://www.maa.org/programs-and-communities/member-communities/maa-awards/writing-awards/carl-b-allendoerfer-awards
  21. George Pólya Awards Mathematical Association of America https://www.maa.org/programs-and-communities/member-communities/maa-awards/writing-awards/george-polya-awards
  22. John M. Smith Awards MMA Maryland-District of Columbia-Virginia Section http://sections.maa.org/mddcva/smith_award.php
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